This invention relates to the electrical system of a vehicle, specifically to the windshield wiper and headlight control switches.
1. Background of the Invention
Traditionally, the lighting and windshield wiper electrical systems functioned independently of each other. Two separate switches controlled the lighting and windshield wiper functions. However, these two functions under many conditions need to operate concurrently. For example, while operating a vehicle during the daytime in inclement weather the windshield wipers would be turned on and it would also be a good ideal to have the parking lights and headlights on as well. This helps to increase driver visibility and also increases vehicle visibility for other drivers and pedestrians. In many states the law requires that when the vehicle is in operation and the windshield wipers are in use, the headlights must also be turned on. However, at certain times the windshield wiper and lighting functions need to operate independent of each other. For example, if it started raining at a drive-in theater or at a police stakeout, the windshield wipers would be needed without the parking lights or headlights being turned on. Even though vehicle safety is increased by turning on the headlights along with the windshield wipers while driving in inclement weather and there are laws requiring it, most people are still not in the habit of turning on the headlights when they turn on the windshield wipers. Two reasons are, because it is not convenient to turn on and off two separate switches, and for fear of leaving the headlights on afterwards. When the headlights are turned on during the daytime the driver must remember to turn them off afterwards. Since it is often difficult to determine if the lights are on or off, the driver can easily forget to turn the lights off; which if not detected in time will result in a dead battery. This is why most drivers do not turn on the headlights in inclement weather during the daytime unless they absolutely need to.
What is needed is a switch that can: 1) conveniently and safely turn on both the parking lights, headlights, and windshield wipers; 2) conveniently and safely be able to turn off the windshield wipers while leaving the headlights on; 3) be able to turn on the windshield wipers only; 4) be able to turn off the parking lights, headlights and windshield wipers when the ignition switch is turned off; 5) be able to turn on the parking and headlights at all times even with the ignition switch off.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are several patents that combine the lighting and windshield wiper functions, the inventions either use the windshield wiper switch to activate the headlights, or they have the windshield wiper circuit wired through the light switch such that the lights must be activated before the windshield wipers can be activated.
The inventions that use the windshield wiper switch to activate the lighting system incorporate the concurrent control of two circuits. In the following inventions, the lighting system is turned on at the same time the windshield wipers are turned on. In these inventions, the windshield wiper switch controls both the windshield wiper and lighting circuits. In order to achieve this, many inventions incorporate components such as relays and switching transistors into the lighting circuit. The following U.S. Patents use such components: U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,119 to Price; U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,837 to Nolin and Lidinsky; U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,845 to Vanderpoel and Broad; U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,596 to Aloisantoni; U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,966 to Bell; U.S. Pat. No. 3,824,405 to Glaze; U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,619 to Kniesly, Colville, and Mullen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,137 to Kniesly, Colville, and Mullen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,839 to Lesiak; U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,801 to Linares; U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,099 to Rosenblum; U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,400 to Hahn; U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,363 to Carter and Isley; U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,562 to Benedick and Stumpf, U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,660 to Cronk; U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,209 to Benedick and Stumpt; U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,183 to Patterson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,196 to Briggette; U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,097 to Montemurro; U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,558 to Benedick and Stumpt; U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,383 to Taccetta and Fico; U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,250 to Cronk; U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,850 to Pace, Neuhaus, and Lipman; U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,852 to Parkes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,307 to Sheets and Parks; U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,974 to Dunbar; U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,500 to Whitman et al. If one of these components malfunctioned this would cause the lighting system to fail. Since the vehicle lighting system is of great importance particularly where road safety is concerned, a malfunction of one of these components while operating the vehicle at night and at high speeds, could result in a serious or even fatal accident. U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,742 to Binegar connects the windshield wiper switch to the lighting circuit directly, however once the windshield wiper switch is turned off the lights will also be turned off as well. When the windshield wipers and lights are turned on at the same time, as in the previous inventions, this creates the problem of keeping the lights on at night after the windshield wipers are turned off. These inventions again must use relays, warning lights, or photo-sensors in order to prevent the lights from inadvertently being turned off once the windshield wipers are turned off. These added components to the lighting system increases cost and the chance of a malfunction which could compromise road safety and present liability problems for the manufacturer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,634 to Ruter manually turns on the lights when the windshield wipers are turned on. Ruter""s invention does not allow a windshield wiper only position and requires two windshield wiper switches, one to turn on the lights and windshield wipers and a second to adjust wiper speeds.
Other inventions have the windshield wiper circuit wired through the headlight switch which requires the headlight switch to be turned on before the windshield wipers will operate: These inventions turn on the headlights and windshield wipers in sequence, and uses a separate switch to control the various windshield wiper settings. U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,120 to Schultz; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,051,873 and 5,130,905 to Ruter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,380 to Bailer and Makdad use a third position on the headlight switch to supply the current to a separate wiper speed control switch. These inventions do not allow independent operation of the headlights and windshield wipers, and are not any more convenient to use because the operator would still have to turn on or adjust two separate switches. These inventions only force the operator to turn on the headlights first. These inventions also do not provide a single switch that could operate both the lighting and multiple windshield wiper functions. If the lighting and windshield wiper functions were in a continuous sequence, problems would arise on how to distinguish between the two functions and prevent the operator from inadvertently turning off the headlights when the windshield wipers are being turned off. The intermittent and off positions of the windshield wipers can be difficult to tell apart and on many of the windshield wiper switches the intermittent positions consists of 4 or 5 settings followed by the slow and fast positions. It could be difficult to determine where the windshield wiper settings end and where the headlight setting begins with so many positions. Also, it would be difficult to distinguish between the headlight and windshield wiper settings if the bulb that illuminates the positions of the switch burned out or if the switch was mounted on the steering column and the operator could not actually look at the switch. Hence, one could accidentally turn off the headlights when turning off the windshield wipers which would be undesirable and again could compromise road safety.
Accordingly, besides the objects and advantages of the combined light and wiper switches described in my above patent, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide a switch that turns on both lights and windshield wipers;
(b) to provide a switch that does not use relays, switching transistors or other similar components;
(c) to provide a switch that can not inadvertently turn the lights off when the windshield wipers are turned off;
(d) to provide a switch that can operate the lights only, windshield wipers only, or both lights and wipers;
(e) to provide a switch that can operate the lights directly from the battery, while operating the lights and windshield wiper through the ignition switch;
(f) to provide a switch that will not keep the lights and wipers on when the ignition switch is turned off, hence preventing the lights from being accidentally left on;
(g) to provide a single selector switch that has multiple positions and is easy and convenient to operate.